“There will be costumes, sets, masks, books…”: Sydney Bernard, the founder of the company Imaginaire Théâtre, on the weekend of May 4 and 5, 2024, sells most of his company’s reserves to Secular patronage of the Red Pillar. He explains: “I’ve had a great career on stage, I’m going to concentrate on training now.”
The sale is open to everyone: theater clubs, schools and individuals are welcome. The prices will be very affordable, “the majority of items will be between €5 and €10, the goal is really for it to be useful to someone else rather than remaining in sheds”, underlines Sydney Bernard. Certain elements of the decor, “real museum pieces” according to him, could fetch up to €300.
Twenty years playing around the world
Sydney Bernard founded the Imaginary Theater around thirty years ago, and has been performing all over the world for twenty years with plays such as “Les Astrobulles”, “La machine à explored le temps” and “Circus-Mundi “. There are three in the troupe: Sydney Bernard is the only one to go on stage, he has an assistant actor and a manager. He explains that being so few allowed them to “travel a lot”. He is very anchored in Brest, Océanopolis challenged him to create “20,000 leagues under the sea”. He opened the performance hall Le Kraken in Brest (which became Le Maquis), rue Victor-Eusen, in the Saint-Pierre district.
Sydney Bernard researches a lot to write his plays. To create “The Time Machine”, it took him “about 500 books”. “They serve me for documentation, and I also draw inspiration from the images for the decorations.” Many can be found on sale, including a large collection of works by Jules Verne. There will also be a large collection of masks, an accessory very present in Sydney Bernard’s creations.
The time to transmit
Now Sydney Bernard wants to transmit. He already gives theater classes in Brest and organizes courses in Marseille, Brest and Plouguerneau. Next year, he will devote his entire activity to training. He will no longer give lessons, but amateurs and professionals alike will be able to follow his mask training courses. Four are already planned, one on the clown mask, another on the leather mask as well as two last on the neutral mask and the shapeshifter mask. For these courses Sydney Bernard is accompanied by his assistant Gaël Guihot, his student whom he has been training for three years and to whom he hopes to pass the torch one day. He has other projects, such as writing a novel or opening a training center, “in three or four years”. For his last time on stage, he will perform “Beckett” with his students in June, at the Secular Patronage of Pilier-Rouge.
Practical
Show flea market, at the Secular Patronage of Pilier-Rouge, 2, rue de Fleurus, in Brest (entrance through the courtyard at the bottom of the establishment), Saturday May 4, from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday May 5, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
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